Veterans at Cooley Affinity Group
Our affinity groups welcome and encourage participation from lawyers and business professionals
The mission of the Veterans at Cooley Affinity Group is to ensure the inclusion of US and international military veterans, members of the Reserve and National Guard, military family members and other allies at Cooley.
The Veterans at Cooley Affinity Group serves as a unifying platform for veterans, service members and supporters to engage in camaraderie bound by a strong esprit de corps. The group promotes firmwide strategies to recruit and retain veterans and prioritize veteran-related pro bono work and business development initiatives with veteran-affiliated clients and initiate internal events in support and in celebration of past and present service members.
Cooley is proud to honor military veterans’ immeasurable sacrifices, and we recognize the unique value veterans and military spouses bring to innovative organizations. We are genuinely committed to developing veteran talent internally and supporting the veteran startup community as a whole.
Kevin Milgram
Deeply committed to supporting veterans
Cooley is a trailblazer in the legal services industry with respect to purposeful efforts to recruit, integrate and support talented veteran lawyers and business professionals.
In 2021, Cooley became the first Big Law firm to formally pledge support for our lawyers and business professionals who serve part-time in the National Guard or Reserve, when we signed the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve Statement of Support.
Cooley regularly sponsors various law student groups, including organizations that allow us to connect with students who are military veterans. And, through our diversity fellowships, we also have worked with outstanding veteran law students who demonstrate a commitment to promoting diversity, equity and inclusion.
Sharing our time, talents and resources
Cooley routinely participates in volunteer efforts in support of veterans-related causes and engages in pro bono work with organizations, including:
- Disabled American Veterans (DAV)
- Swords to Plowshares
- The Veterans Consortium
- Harvard Law School’s Veterans Law and Disability Benefits Clinic
Purpose-built to support veteran-led companies and the investors who back them
At Cooley, we actively work to expand opportunities for underrepresented groups as part of our effort to build a more diverse and inclusive ecosystem. We recognize that military veterans have long played a vital role in the US business landscape, using the resourcefulness, adaptability and mission-driven leadership they developed during their military experience to grow impactful companies. We are honored to leverage our experience working with the nation’s most dynamic startups and investors – dating back to our formation of America’s first venture fund in Silicon Valley – to help veteran-affiliated startups accomplish their missions.
Market leaders
Our market-leading emerging companies practice is globally renowned and received a Chambers USA Band 1 ranking for Startups and Emerging Companies in 2023.
The Cooley advantage
Clients who partner with us gain the advantage of our extensive experience, practical and business-oriented counsel, team-focused approach, entrepreneurial culture and unparalleled access to investors. We also offer strategic, game-changing resources that are critical throughout a company’s life cycle – including Cooley GO, which provides entrepreneurs with basic document generators, guidance, advice on deal trends and answers to frequently asked questions. Cooley has a long history of partnering with veteran-led startups and high-growth companies across every major industry.
Embedded in the community
We are proud to champion a variety of national veterans startup events and accelerator programs – including:
- The Military Veteran Startups Conference
- West Point Entrepreneur Summit
- DAV
- Patriot Boot Camp
- PenFed Foundation’s Veteran Entrepreneur Investment Program
- MilVet Angels Foundation and Diverse Venture Capital Conference
